Color inkjet printers provide multiple print modes that allow a user to trade off print quality and print speed. One of the sacrifices made for high-speed operation is hue-shift banding, i.e., differences in color or lightness between swaths printed in opposite direction. Hue shift can be a result of the order in which colors to be mixed are deposited on print media. For example, the color resulting from depositing cyan over magenta during a forward print motion can be different from the color resulting from depositing magenta over cyan during a reverse printing motion. As a result, a visible boundary may appear where a forward (e.g., left to right) printed band meets a reverse (e.g., right to left) printed band.
The banding effect can be substantially eliminated in higher-quality modes, e.g., that use multiple passes per swath or that print in only one direction; however, these approaches sacrifice speed for quality. The banding effect has been reduced by using different color maps for forward and reverse printing without sacrificing. However, further reductions in banding are desired.